Only along come the crusaders for social justice, ranting that the game is racist, because it’s not ethnically diverse enough, due to the fact that there are only Polish-looking people in it and the Poles have the “misfortune” to be white.

The communist regime also “meant well” and their rhetoric was almost identical to that we hear today from the likes of Jonathan McIntosh and other American progressives.

Right. Meanwhile, from my point of view, I wonder why these people don’t like money. Because at the end of the day, that’s what the push for greater diversity is all about CAPITALISM for those of us MAKING games. Getting more people to get their hands on our games – more non-gamers to play, more gamers from other demographics to play, or more gamers from new, emerging markets to play the game.

Only along come the crusaders for social justice, ranting that the game is racist, because it’s not ethnically diverse enough, due to the fact that there are only Polish-looking people in it and the Poles have the “misfortune” to be white. That’s an issue for the activists, because an African American, for example, might not be happy about playing a white Polish hero.

Certainly there is good reason for activists to want more diversity from playable leads – the handcrafted badasses that we painstakingly character design, write dialogue for, and market the industry around. But that wasn’t the point. The point is that viewers and game players of all sorts tend to respond favorably to portrayals, particularly positive portrayals, that they have personal resonance with. Which is to say, if you want to have a large-scale breakout hit which penetrates many multiple markets, you increase the odds significantly with greater in-game diversity.

Vavra veered into comparing the games industry to the music industry – suggesting that Britney Spears should play death metal, which was amusing. Similar complaints on Twitter to my article about Rescuing Princesses in Arkham Knight suggested that I thought that all straight porn should have a gay scene. While amusing, no. Extreme diversification of content for small, indie games is fine (though we need more, despite Vavra’s statistics). However, AAA games are far more similar to big budget movies in their financial statistics, and guess what? Hollywood is big believers in diversity once they start hitting 9 digits (a number we’re starting to hit as well).

Joss Whedon gets 100M+ to make Avengers movies because he puts female butts in seats (and yes, sometimes he trips up). Movies at that scale are not perfect, but compared to games they’re fanatical about putting in strong female and black characters – and not just in token roles, but in meaty, significant roles. Even more telling, it seems almost every summer blockbuster explosion porn extravaganza has at least one major scene in Asia (see: Battleship, Pacific Rim, Transformers 4, Avengers 2) – that’s not an accident. It turns out that Asian audiences are the audiences that eat these sorts of movies up the most after American audiences, and they like to watch Hong Kong get destroyed just as much as we like to watch the Hollywood sign go down.

Vavra would no doubt argue that this is not a very ‘diverse’ thing – to see every action movie find a way to wander over to Hong Kong for a pivotal fight scene. And this is true. Meanwhile, Transformers 4 is the top grossing movie of all time in China, so hey, maybe this isn’t just pandering to American communists who ‘mean well’. It’s also pandering to Chinese communists who spend very real money, which is pretty important if you’re spending ridiculous amounts of money creating your artistic vision.

What I like about The Witcher is its very “Polishness”, and I’m certainly not the only one. The very fact that the “diverse” Dragon Age Inquisition, set in an indefinite fantasy world, sold less copies in Japan in one year than The Witcher did in two weeks proves my point.

It’s equally absurd to demand that a European stick elements of foreign cultures he doesn’t understand into his games. As a Czech, most foreign games and movies set in my own country seem to me at best ridiculous, because foreigners can’t even manage to capture properly the look of this country (Call of Duty, Metal Gear Solid 4, Forza 5 etc.), never mind our mentality and culture.

Comparing game sales solely based on the diversity of their casts is — well, not very useful, to say the least. A LOT goes into whether one game does better than another. Still, he has a good point buried in here – games that try to mimic a culture they’re not familiar with frequently fail to resonate with their intended audiences, producing results that feel alien or sometimes even insulting to the cultures they’re attempting to reflect. One of the things you learn early in this industry is to always contract your Asian architecture in particular out to Asian art houses, because Americans can’t get it to feel right.

That being said, I do think that it’s bizarre to think that the defining feature about Polish culture is, somehow, it’s whiteness. And I wonder if Witcher 3 might have sold even more copies if it had been more inclusive in its character designs. It would have been as simple as including a Zerrikanian, (such as Azar Javed from an earlier Witcher product), in the game, preferably as a meaningful character. Having badasses reflect you, the player, in a game helps create the sense that you belong. And that increases appeal to people who might not otherwise. People who are white and male don’t actually appreciate how rare that is for others.

To go back to the movies, Norse mythology is ALSO lily white. However, the makers of Thor saw fit to include Idris Elba in the key role of Heimdall. Did this somehow hurt the ‘Norseness’ of the movie? Not particularly – that’s not what’s important about Norse mythology, and the only people who were upset about it were the sort of despicable white supremacists who call Stormfront home. Meanwhile, the movie probably sold more tickets than it otherwise would have (the Thor movies both did over $180M gross, despite the fact that it’s based on a relatively second- or third-tier Marvel book). Which means that a larger, more diverse audience were introduced to Norse mythology. Which, if you care about preserving and promoting Norse culture, is way more important than ‘everyone’s white’. Marvel Comics is being far more forward and bold in this regard, of course, and clearly something’s working for them as they’re continuing to trounce DC in their books as well as their movies.

After this, Vavra posted a lot of numbers. I’m seeing different numbers where I’m sitting – I’m looking ahead to where things are growing. I’m seeing more devices in more countries and more games going international. I’m seeing more money from more sales to audiences outside our safety zone. I’m seeing, for example, and RPG audience that has shifted radically towards women. Which is good, because the truth is that AAA budgets are growing at paces that outpace the audiences that buy them today. There aren’t a lot of outs to solving that problem, so many companies are hoping that capitalism will save us. Through diversity.

]]>http://www.zenofdesign.com/capitalism-and-diversity/feed/32Derek Smart Joins Circus d’AirPlayhttp://www.zenofdesign.com/derek-smart-joins-circus-dairplay/
http://www.zenofdesign.com/derek-smart-joins-circus-dairplay/#commentsTue, 21 Jul 2015 19:28:12 +0000http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=4067I began this month with a promise that I was not going to post the name of a certain hashtag on my frontpage for the duration of July. The Airplay catastrofuck has made that promise very difficult. Fortunately, Scott managed to say what I wanted to say, only funnier, anyway.
]]>http://www.zenofdesign.com/derek-smart-joins-circus-dairplay/feed/1Derek Smart vs Star Citizen: Round Twohttp://www.zenofdesign.com/derek-smart-vs-star-citizen/
http://www.zenofdesign.com/derek-smart-vs-star-citizen/#commentsFri, 17 Jul 2015 20:01:27 +0000http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=4064Derek Smart is still continuing his ongoing crusade against Star Citizen, most notably “the bullshit that is the ‘vaporware’ […] that RSI/CIG have foisted on […] legacy backers”.

“These bastards, most of whom were probably running around in diapers, rubbing poo-dipped hands on their faces, when I was earning my chops as a hardcore Internet Warlord, simply don’t know who they’re dealing with,”

“All you’ve done, is strengthened my resolve, and unwittingly broadcast to the world that you have something to hide by kicking me out as a backer,” he says. “I’m going to take out a full page article in the NY times, just to prove it.”

]]>http://www.zenofdesign.com/derek-smart-vs-star-citizen/feed/6Drama in Troll Countryhttp://www.zenofdesign.com/schadenfreude-salad/
http://www.zenofdesign.com/schadenfreude-salad/#commentsTue, 14 Jul 2015 20:24:43 +0000http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=4057It turns out that there’s been some problems in getting a handful of industrial grade neoconservative rape denialists and kool aid drinkers together to pretend to discuss ethics while slamming feminists and diversity initiatives in gaming and geek culture to a group of actual professional journalists.

]]>http://www.zenofdesign.com/schadenfreude-salad/feed/39Rescuing Princesses in Arkham Knighthttp://www.zenofdesign.com/rescuing-princesses-in-arkham-knight/
http://www.zenofdesign.com/rescuing-princesses-in-arkham-knight/#commentsTue, 14 Jul 2015 05:34:07 +0000http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=4045I generally like Anita’s work. However, one place where I’ve felt it to be weak is in regards to Damseling. It’s not that I don’t agree that it’s an overused trope. The issue is that a number of issues converge to make damseling difficult to fix. These same issues make the Bechdel Test worthless for games. To wit:

1) Story-based games tend to center on one character. Unlike an ensemble movie, like say the Avengers, pretty much all interactions must center on the main character and his conflicts. All core characters are defined by their relation to that main character. If that main character’s gender is preset as male (as it is frequently, especially in licensed games such as an Arkham game), then all other relationships, male or female, will effectively be defined by that character.

2) While Anita & other cultural critics find it tiring to talk about women continually being rescue targets and motivations, the truth of the matter is that virtually any experienced screenwriter will tell you that saving an ally or loved one is a far more compelling narrative than saving the world by finding/disabling/destroying some interchangeable quest foozle. Most game stories have TWENTY or so of these quest foozles to pad out a 20 hour playtime, and need to have rescues and similar ‘personal’ missions in order to relieve the banality and add more personal stake Which means that if you want to include female allies in your game, it’s hard NOT to trip over one of these tropes unless you put your female characters in a closet where they aren’t actually interacting with the plot much at all – obviously not desirable either.

So yeah, I tend to think that handwringing over damseling tends to be overwrought. As such, I was fully prepared to pooh pooh this writeup on the game. But once I sat down and made time to play, I found Arkham Knight to be pretty disquieting in this regard. Which is an odd step backwards for a game that’s a sequel to a game that gave us a significantly playable and awesome Catwoman.

I’m loving the game , although so far I’m only 30% of the way in (I have a tendency to get sidetracked chasing Riddler trophies). As a huge fan of Arkham City and Arkham Asylum. I definitely consider it a must own all the same for fans of the genre. In many respects, though, it’s not as good at its predecessors – I found Arkham City to be the high point of the series. In particular, Arkham Knight has a lot to love, particularly the Joker sequences, balanced out by just too god damn much batmobile.

But let’s not talk about that. Let’s talk about how Arkham Knight sets the table by immediately damselling every female ally in the game. In or near the opening sequence, Batman rescues Poison Ivy, a reluctant ally. Shortly afterwards, you encounter a Catwoman, who apparently will take lots of Riddler-placating to free. Before the second hour of gameplay is completed, Oracle is captured.

Which is to say, every single female ally in Gotham is a rescue princess from damn near the outset of the game. Batman starts with seven notable allies. The four male ones (Gordon, Alfred, Nightwing, and Lucius Fox) are still doing just fine – at 30% in, I’ve had to escort Gordon on one relatively non-threatening car chase. This is despite the fact that three of them don’t have any form of superpowers.

The rescue princesses are not powerless Vicki Vale characters who cannot possibly stand up to Scarecrow. The 3 captured women are some of the strongest, most capable characters in the Gotham canon. But their ability to take action is not why they were captured. Poison Ivy was imprisoned solely to act as bait for a trap for Batman. Catwoman, similarly, is captured solely so Riddler can taunt Batman into chasing question-mark shaped trophies. Oracle isn’t captured because she’s your eyes and ears (Lucius Fox immediately does everything she was doing with little interruption), but because, as Jim Gordon’s daughter, she’s useful for driving a wedge between Batman and the commish.

Matters are made worse by the fact that, so far, I’ve noticed no other feminine presence in the game at all. I assume that Harley Quinn will make an appearance at some point, but she hasn’t yet as far as I can recall. There are no female cops on your side. And in something that is a pet peeve of mine (something I’ve written about before that Anita echoes to some extent), there are no women among the dozens of bruisers and thugs you’re asked to defeat along the way. Seriously, it would kill Batman’s enemies to hire just a Michelle Rodriguez/Gina Torres style badass women to add some variety to the endless sausage fest on the streets of Gotham? Seeing women at all ranks of the superhero/supervillian ladder helps create a sense that women belong in this world. That they can, too, aspire to be power brokers in this world.

Instead we have the opposite result: a game world where violence gets things done, where women are clearly unqualified to be on the streets at all, where the most potent women start as helpless objectives for the protagonists.

And it would be so simple to fix as well. Have the initial Poison Ivy encounter be a boss fight capture scenario instead of a rescue, as is befitting her role as a supervillian. Flip Nightwing and Catwoman’s roles in the story. I’ve heard that Nightwing does get captured later and require rescue (as does Lucius) so swapping that would only delay Catwoman’s damselling. Spreading out the gal rescues and mixing them with male rescues would go a long way.

Instead, look at how Arkham Knight sets the table with its early experience. By having ALL THREE start off nearly simultaneously in peril, and no other female presence in the game, the overall message is clear: women don’t belong in this world.

And just like that, you’ve alienated half your potential market in a license with enormous broad market awareness.

As a final note, when I posted that the game has too much batmobile to Twitter, no one felt the urge to tell me that I didn’t know games, didn’t understand the market for Batman games, was a filthy SJW, or didn’t appreciate or respect the artists’ vision.

Things are quite a different story when you mention that you’ve got a problem with how women (or minorities) are treated in a game. Undoubtedly, people will ignore the fact that I’m loving the game except for this, and all the God Damn Batmobile play. Seriously, anyone who likes previous Arkhams should pick it up. I find it vastly superior to AC: Unity, for example. And the Joker makes everything worthwhile – trust me. It’s 88% on Metacritic shows that the media pretty much agrees.

And no, I don’t think the Rocksteady crew are misogynist assholes. I simply think that they didn’t look at this problem from this direction. Believe it or not, a shit ton of issues creep through game development like this because team members simply don’t realize how a vision will look when it coalesces. This is an issue that is hard to fix, but can be helped greatly by having more team diversity in decision making roles. But if you don’t catch these problems in the design early, it may be almost impossible to rearrange or fix things later on, because we’re talking about huge structural choices made to the narrative.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with me on this one — many designers would disagree with my assertions, and many others would claim that I don’t go far enough. But discussions like these are important so that designers start thinking about the impacts of these decisions earlier in development. Because putting aside whatever social justice angle you do or don’t care about, there’s potentially millions of dollars at stake when you include or exclude potential customers.

And no, I’m not saying that all games should appeal to all people. There is plenty of room for Bayonetta and GTA V as well as for the Sims and Kim Kardashian’s Hollywood. But when you have a broad based, mass market license that has worldwide recognition and appeal to people of all ages, you’re leaving money on the table when you don’t do just the simple stupid things that can frequently be done without compromising one iota what makes the game great.

]]>http://www.zenofdesign.com/rescuing-princesses-in-arkham-knight/feed/6Trusting and Not Trusting Researchhttp://www.zenofdesign.com/trusting-and-not-trusting-research/
http://www.zenofdesign.com/trusting-and-not-trusting-research/#commentsTue, 14 Jul 2015 05:11:02 +0000http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=4048A few days ago, in my Magic Mike thought exercise, I concluded with a link to a study suggesting that young boys and girls want more female heroes and fewer as sex objects. While this link didn’t fundamentally affect my article or my opinions on this topic, the authors of this particular study have since reported that the methodology of the study is not a ‘rigorous academic study‘, but rather an exploratory one meant to spur other research.

“From my understanding, she found some pretty interesting findings,” Patchin said. “So now, of course, the next step is to replicate that and do another test in another school. Maybe 100 researchers can take questions and administer them in other populations and see if they hold up. That’s the scientific process.”

Speaking of incomplete research, some time ago noted fake feminists and rape apologists attempted to debunk campus rape stats suggesting that 1 in 5 women in college are sexually assaulted in that time. Questions were raised about the methodology of the research getting that information in an article she wrote for the Washington Post. So whatever happened to that?

Another study has found that at one college, that number is exceeded by the end of that college’s freshman year. Questioning methodology of a study to improve future studies is always a good thing. Still, while sexual assault is a difficult thing to measure accurately, we’re now at a point where a battery of research drives to similar results, That’s how science is supposed to work.

But you can’t convince the old guard of that, no matter how many studies give the same approximate ballpark for these stats. The brigade of rabid conservative culture warriors who cling to their beliefs that sexual assault on campus is not a problem that urgently needs addressing is now reaching climate change levels of denial. Threesuchdenialists will be speaking proudly at AirPlay this month.

]]>http://www.zenofdesign.com/trusting-and-not-trusting-research/feed/3Smedley vs. Lizard Squadhttp://www.zenofdesign.com/smedley-vs-lizard-squad/
http://www.zenofdesign.com/smedley-vs-lizard-squad/#commentsMon, 13 Jul 2015 06:26:43 +0000http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=4043Speaking of unspeakable and horrific harassment, this week the member of Lizard Squad that authorities managed to get their hands on got sentenced for his part of their activities, which included that Christmas where none of us could play on XBox Live.

For whatever reason, this group has decided in particular to target John Smedley, former president of SOE (now Daybreak studios), which is responsible for Everquest, Planetside and H1Z1. The shitstorm he’s endured is probably the most significant gaming shitstorm this side of Zoe Quinn.

“[The arrested kid] was the guy that brought down my flight with a bomb threat,” wrote Smedley, who was onboard an American Airlines flight last August that was forced to make an emergency landing due to a security threat. “I’ve heard the entire recording where he convinced an airline customer service agent there was a bomb on the plane. He also in conjunction with others has sent me pictures of my father’s grave with nasty stuff on it. I’ve had my entire credit history put out on the internet including my SSN and my families [sic] info. We’ve had multiple social networks and other things hacked and had my family members called.”

Smedley also said he has been ‘swatted’ multiple times—when police are fooled into thinking there’s an emergency at a victim’s house, and often activate their swat teams—and has been the victim of serious financial fraud from hackers, presumably Lizard Squad.

“I’ve … had over 50 false credit applications submitted in my name and had to deal with the ramifications of what happens to your credit when this kind of thing happens. It’s not good,” he said. “And to top it all off they decided to submit false tax returns.”

The kid caught participating in all of this was charged with 50,000 counts of cybercrime in his home in Finland. For this, the kid recieved 2 years of a suspended sentence. That’s right, no jail time, at least not yet. 51000th time is the charm?

Unfortunately, these instances of targetting devs are just getting more common, as evidenced by the Bungie exec that got swatted last year. The anonymity, and lack of seriousness that people take these crimes, is at this time truly disheartening, and that won’t change until both laws and technology catch up. Still, I have a feeling that 10-15 years from now, we’ll look back at the Wild West of today’s internet in total awe of it’s barbaric nature.

]]>http://www.zenofdesign.com/smedley-vs-lizard-squad/feed/1Ellen Pao and Misogynyhttp://www.zenofdesign.com/ellen-pao-and-misogyny/
http://www.zenofdesign.com/ellen-pao-and-misogyny/#commentsMon, 13 Jul 2015 06:09:48 +0000http://www.zenofdesign.com/?p=4040I don’t really know if Ellen Pao was an effective leader or not within the walls of Reddit. What I do know is that not much seemed to actually change during her tenure until the last month or so, and by that time, the angry outrage brigade had already made it clear they were determined to destroy her.

I also know that these same assholes are now trying to start a debate, challenging the ‘narrative’ that Ellen Pao was driven away under an avalanche of misogyny perpetuated by it’s worst members – as detailed by Gawker, the Daily Beast (also here) and the New York Times, among others. Allow me to save the suspense: there’s nothing to debate. Whatever else happened during her tenure, Pao endured ridiculous misogyny the entire time – before she’d done pretty much ANYTHING to earn her ire.

Things didn’t really go off the rails, though, until she promised to crack down on harassment on the service, which ultimately resulted in the shutdown of ‘FatPeopleHate’, a subreddit where members would routinely go to other reddits or even sites on the internet, and piledrive fat people with harassment and abuse, with some proudly goading terrified victims to kill themselves. When she shut down this (but left up awful places such as ‘coontown‘ which at least have the decency to keep their abuse to themselves), things went into overdrive, adding in layers of anti-Asian racism as well as numerous attempts to paint her as a dictator, google bomb her with the nazi flag, etc, etc. Again, despite the fact that Reddit will allow almost anything on their forums, provided it’s legal and doesn’t result in harassment of other internet locations.

I pretty much knew that she would be on her way out with the #RedditRevolt, where after an abrupt and unexpected firing of a popular moderator (which wasn’t her call, and WON’T be reversed with the new chairman), much of the rest of the moderation staff revolted, going on strike. This strike was driven by the forces for good instead of evil – they were protesting the lack of decent procedures and tools to actually moderate against the mouthbreathing troll brigade that haunts Reddit’s underbelly. These trolls captured this momentum and built upon it, ultimately leading to her demise. But the sad truth is that she tried to give the trolls way more than her moderators wanted her to, but could not find a middle ground where anyone could be happy.

Some have tried to argue that Pao’s dismissal is proof of sexism in the tech world – that a man would not have been fired in the same situation. I disagree – Pao had clearly lost control of the situation, which had resulted in a flurry of bad press about the company appearing in mainstream outlets, and its not unusual for executives, particularly CEOs with ‘interims’ attached to their title, to take the fall in these scenarios.

That being said, I do believe that the blatant misogyny that Peo was subjected to – the unrealistic expectations, the slanders, the gendered insults – would never have been levied against a male CEO with a similar resume, and so this scenario would not have appeared for a man who delivered the same results. And I also do believe that Pao is probably delighted to finally have reprieve after 9 months of hell.

Imagine a world where every movie is Magic Mike. Or a clone thereof. Imagine that if you went to the movies, you were likely to experience the Magic Mike experience. How long until you’re turned off from going to the movies?

Hey, you’re open minded. You’re comfortable with your sexuality. Keep in mind that Magic Mike is a pretty good film: 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. Imagine these movies were EVEN BETTER. Imagine that they were, by film standards, all time great films that hit 95%+. Every one of them is praised by critics as being masterworks – charming, funny, and solid examples of the craft. And every film was full of washboard abs and oversized codpieces. Every. Single. Film.

How long until going to the movies makes you feel a bit icky? Do you even bother owning a television? Are you enthused by sitting next to your girlfriend while she drools at the screen – EVERY trip to the movies? When you watch movies in a mixed crowd, is it an audience split between enthusiastic women hooting and hollering next to awkwardly silent men quietly nursing their beer?

Imagine that other films exist, but the movie press just ignored them and continued to plaster every cover of every Entertainment Weekly with massive mounds of Channing Tatum quality manmeat attached to hollywood bodies unobtainable by normal men. And most of the other movies happened to be movies aimed for the Nickelodeon crowd.

Imagine that even when the Avengers, a movie with massive crossover success appears and even outsells Magic Mike, the Hollywood studios ignored that success and kept making Magic Mike clones to the degree that they kept cannibalizing each others sales, while this entire other market just remained unexploited. Imagine that movie directors actually talked about how the movies DEPENDED on washboard abs and manmeat to be successful. “Our extensive focus groups have shown that men will tolerate this, but women WILL NOT BUY A TICKET without a codpiece that looks like it’s got a Kielbasa Sausage inside”. Because, the movie executives tell you with a straight face, women are incapable of enjoying film for any other reason.

But right now, that’s what it looks like coming in from the other side. We have video game aisles that are still too narrow in their depictions across the board. We have comic book stores where daughters cannot find a magazine they feel like is aimed for them. The diversity and experimentation that we do have is buried away in Steam. Which is a real problem – as games get more expensive to make, we need to sell our games to broader, wider audiences. Joss Whedon gets to spend $200M making Avengers films because he puts female butts in seats for what are normally male-oriented flicks. Now that our AAA budgets are crossing the 9-digit mark, it’s high time that the industry started to think the same way, or the AAA game will soon head the way of the dodo.

According to a research report from Miner & Co. Studio, televisions are no longer the screen of choice for kids who have ready access to tablets and smartphones. More than half (57%) of parents surveyed said their children now prefer to watch video on a handheld device rather than on TV.

Mobile devices are so popular with kids that nearly half of the 800 parents quizzed by Miner & Co. reported that they confiscate their kids’ tablets when they act up and make them watch TV instead, thereby fostering a sort of Pavlovian response that equates TV with punishment.